Recruitment strategies in a prospective longitudinal family study on parents with obesity and their toddlers

BMC Public Health

Research Article

Kai von Klitzing¹  Annette M. Klein¹  Anja Keitel-Korndörfer²  Katharina Herfurth-Majstorovic²  Sarah Bergmann²  Matthias Grube²  Verena Wendt² 

[1] Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, University of Leipzig, Liebigstrasse 20a, 04103, Leipzig, Germany;Integrated Research and Treatment Center (IFB) AdiposityDiseases, University of Leipzig, Philipp-Rosenthal-Strasse 27, 04103, Leipzig, Germany;Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, University of Leipzig, Liebigstrasse 20a, 04103, Leipzig, Germany;

关键词: Family study;    Recruitment;    Cost effectiveness;    Obesity;    Corporate design;    Child;    Toddler;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12889-017-4038-9

 received in 2016-01-08, accepted in 2017-01-13,  发布年份 2017

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundRecruitment of participants with obesity is a real challenge. To reduce time and costs in similar projects, we investigated various recruiting strategies used in a longitudinal family study with respect to their enrolment yield and cost effectiveness. Results may help other research groups to optimize their recruitment strategies.MethodsWe applied different recruitment strategies to acquire families with children aged 6 to 47 months and at least one parent with obesity (risk group) or two parents of normal weight (control group) for a longitudinal non-interventional study. Based on four main strategies-via media, kindergartens, health professionals and focusing on the community-we examined 15 different subcategories of strategies. Based on enrolment yield and relative costs (e.g., material expenses, staff time) we analyzed the effectiveness of each recruitment strategy.ResultsFollowing different recruitment approaches, 685 families contacted us; 26% (n = 178) of these met the inclusion criteria. Of the four main strategies, the community-focused strategy was the most successful one (accounting for 36.5% of the sample) followed by contacts with kindergartens (accounting for 28.1% of the sample). Of the subcategories, two strategies were outstanding: Posters (community-focused strategies), and recruitment via kindergartens using phone contacts rather than emailing. Only a small number of participants were recruited via announcements in newspapers (lower cost strategy), advertisements on public transport or face-to-face recruitment at various places (higher cost strategies).ConclusionsResults revealed that only a combination of different active and passive methods and approaches led to a sufficient sample size. In this study, recruitment via posters and contacting kindergartens on the phone produced the highest numbers of participants (high enrolment yield) at moderate costs.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s). 2017